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About instructors
Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
Author of Force drawing books. My focus is teaching how you can express yourself purely with line and gesture.
LESSON NOTES
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Do shapes really have emotion? In this lesson, Mike Mattesi joins us to share his thoughts on shape emotion, what emotions specific shapes have, and why it’s such an important concept to understand.
You’ll discover why rectangles represent power, circles are friendly, and triangles feel dangerous as we explore the symbolism behind shapes and how they play a significant role in our art and emotional responses.
RELATED LESSONS
Shape Hacks - How to Draw Interesting Shapes
7 Ways Simple Shapes Can Improve Your Drawings
DOWNLOADS
shape-emotion-with-mike-mattesi.mp4
301 MB
shape-emotion-with-mike-mattesi-transcript-english.txt
8 kB
shape-emotion-with-mike-mattesi-transcript-spanish.txt
9 kB
shape-emotion-with-mike-mattesi-captions-english.srt
15 kB
shape-emotion-with-mike-mattesi-captions-spanish.srt
15 kB
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Do shapes really have emotion? In this lesson, Mike Mattesi joins us to share his thoughts on shape emotion, what emotions specific shapes have, and why it’s such an important concept to understand.
I wanted to combine some of the things I’ve learned so far in the course, so I used a bull as a reference. I attempted a composition, something I’ve never done before, but it felt EXCITING!! because my goal is to create my own comic one day, and composition is incredibly important for building strong, impactful scenes. The bull felt imposing and dangerous to me, so I tried to frame it emerging from an enclosed space, emphasizing the horns and front of the body. That was the idea, at least.
Honestly Mike Mattesi explains so good, I can see the passion that he has for what he does and I really want to learn more from him related to this topic: composition and gesture. I know he has some books, I'm going to check them out. He's GREAT!!
I thought perhaps making the wolf triangular would make him more dangerous looking or dynamic
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2mo
Woah. This is a cool series of drawings.
You’re right that the sharp angles can make him look more dangerous. More rounded shapes would make him look soft.
So that's why everyone is scared of Waluigi! Very inspiring and interesting video.
@Mike Mattesi this made a lot of sense put this way. I also didn’t really connect with this idea. Really great stuff. But contextualizing the emotions we are ascribing helped. I suspect that there is also an important cultural component between cultures. Surely someone has looked at this. Anyone have any insights?
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2yr
There probably is but humanity is ubiquitous. It's amazing how we all go through similar events and understanding in our lives across the globe.
Great video! Thanks for posting. So, angles create energy. That must mean the positive and negative spaces. Sure wish he spent a bit more time on them. Loved it. ❤️
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2yr
Thanks Nancy.
do we have to Master something before we can move on to another video lesson?🤔
I was watching your video lesson and I'm practicing drawing accurate proportions for 7 days straight, and I feel like I was making a small progress but I'm getting used to it. But, should I master matching the proportions first before I move on? or it is okay to move on to another video?
Any answers will be appreciated!❤️
Once you have caught up there will be plenty of time to repeat everything you've done so far - at least that's how I'm doing it.
Im catching up as well. He says in the dynamic shapes lesson that we will always need to practice proportions and dynamic shapes. I need to work on them as well and and will continue doing so but I’m moving on with the course 👍🏻
As both someone interested in art and also interested in psychology, this was a really interesting breakdown. I definitely understand this, very cool!
So i had a question. Recently I have been only having a lot of time for just the practice content. For someone who wants to get better at drawing, is just practicing the lessons for my only time in my schedule for practice going to help? Or should i alternate days where i draw something i see or something I like?
Hello! In my experience it has helped to practice what I am learning through application. Taking the content and applying it to subject I care more about then sometimes re-watching and practicing the class content had been invaluable. Not sure if you are familiar with Draw-a-box, but they recommend a 50/50 split. 50% class stuff, 50% personal projects. Hope that helps!
My mentor! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
Mike is a great teacher (and artist) and really knows his stuff. He is very skilled at using his knowledge and drawing prowess to explain topics in a clear, concise way.
Great explanation - particularly how to rationalize the concept! I guess it becomes quite strategic in terms of how to build this into complex images where shapes and emotions can compete or aggregate to form different meanings.
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2yr
Yes and the strategy and execution is different based on the style. Very simple cartoons are a lot more direct with shape language, while representational art is more subtle.
